DOTA

[PrimitiveJudge]

Ok I am going to the extreme. My friends play this game and dodge the questions on what Dota stands for.. For the love of EARTH.. wtf does Dota stand for and please tell me why people like it.

*please excuse the spelling, Kind of pissed off atm.*

 

[NerfedFalcon]

DotA stands for "Defense of the Ancients", referring to the structures in each corner of the map. You have to defend enemy pushes against your base and therefore Ancient while pushing back at theirs, and the first team to destroy the other's Ancient is the winner.

This is nowhere near as easy as it sounds. This is not in the same galaxy of ease as it sounds. Starting with the fact that there are three lanes and five players on each team. It only gets more complicated from there. That complexity is actually why people like it.

There are about 100 heroes, and a lot of different items. These create several different scenarios - who's matched against who in each lane? Are you getting your ass kicked? Does anyone else have or is building towards a Mekansm?[footnote]Usually the job of the support. Or a support if there's more than one on the team.[/footnote] Who the hell is Lanaya?[footnote]Templar Assassin. Carry, strong mid-laner, very difficult to play right but powerful if you can.[/footnote] If you can figure all of this out, though, and - not going to lie to you - it'll take a lot of work, then it's one of the most rewarding games you can play.

That is, if the other four people on your team know that stuff too.

 

[Keoul]

Welp Leet basically summed it all up.
Here's a map instead.

Spoiler: Map

2 Bases, 3 lanes. Kill the enemy ancient and you win!

 

[Jandau]

Why do people like it? Complexity and depth. Games like DotA (meaning, LoL, HoN, DotA2, etc.) offer a condensed RPG-like experience, with XP, leveling, skills, items and such in a competitive team-based environement. The main draw is the interaction of the wide array of game mechanics - different heroes have drastically different roles and abilities available to them, which in turn means they need to be built differently. Then comes the added dimension of needing to adapt to the flow of the game, your enemies' lineup and builds, your team and your own role in it.

All this results in a more cerebral experience than the average shooter. While player skill plays a major role in the game it is not enough. Knowing the game, the various characters and their abilities, the items, knowing how to recognize the flow of the game and adapt to it (the game is often played radically differently in early, mid and late stages due to how heroes develop over time) - all this is necessary and sometimes more important than pure twitch skill.

If you'd like to learn more about this type of game, I suggest either playing DotA with your friends and having them tutor you, or taking up League of Legends. LoL is probably the best entry-level MOBA game (acronym for DotA style games, means Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with the gentlest learning curve (all MOBA games have a pretty rough learning period, LoL is just more gentle than others) which can get you familiarized with the genre basics without making you want to murder a kitten. DotA (and DotA2) are on the more unforgiving side of the spectrum and I wouldn't recommend them to new players with no prior experience.

 

[Aircross]

While DotA is an acronym for Defense of the Ancients the "Dota" in Dota 2 is a word.

Valve did that to avoid any kind of trademark and copyright issues.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I tried it and I didn't see the appeal. Partly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and partly because it wasn't really my style of game.

 

[DustyDrB]

I tried it and I didn't see the appeal. Partly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and partly because it wasn't really my style of game.

I felt the same way for a long time. Then my friends and I started playing bot games together. It was fun because we were all new and didn't know anything. It was low pressure and a great way to learn (especially when one of our more veteran friends joined us and taught us a bunch).

If you have an opportunity to get into the game that way, then it's definitely the way to go. Low pressure, in the struggle with friends who will gladly look you try stupid things in the name of experimentation, and then you'll have a group you're already comfortable with when you're ready to play against people.

 

[sextus the crazy]

What, couldn't be bothered to google Dota?

Why do people like it? Complexity and depth. Games like DotA (meaning, LoL, HoN, DotA2, etc.) offer a condensed RPG-like experience, with XP, leveling, skills, items and such in a competitive team-based environement. The main draw is the interaction of the wide array of game mechanics - different heroes have drastically different roles and abilities available to them, which in turn means they need to be built differently. Then comes the added dimension of needing to adapt to the flow of the game, your enemies' lineup and builds, your team and your own role in it.

err, yeah, this. It's like a competitive version of Diablo.

 

[Aircross]

If you're new to the game, I suggest you read this before even begin to play with bots.

http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck

 

[BloatedGuppy]

If you're new to the game, I suggest you read this before even begin to play with bots.

http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck

Purge is fantastic but I still maintain that's a terrible noob guide. It's a great guide for someone who is 20-30 games in. Anyone completely new to the game is going to read that and give up before they even start.

 

[thesilentman]

If you're new to the game, I suggest you read this before even begin to play with bots.

http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck

Purge is fantastic but I still maintain that's a terrible noob guide. It's a great guide for someone who is 20-30 games in. Anyone completely new to the game is going to read that and give up before they even start.

You're kidding, right? That tutorial was insanely helpful to me and my friends who started off. The only issue I had with the guide is that it doesn't really encourage playing around with heroes that much.

OT- DOTA is video game chess. It's a MOBA, which is a Massive Online Battle Arena, and is guaranteed to be difficult.

Well, more complex than actually difficult. Like chess, where it's simple to play, hard to master, DOTA has the same idea. The difference is that DOTA is a real time battle arena and has some RPG elements.

That's just a very, very basic explanation of DOTA. I'm in the same boat as you, having just started out.

Ok I am going to the extreme. My friends play this game and dodge the questions on what Dota stands for.. For the love of EARTH.. wtf does Dota stand for and please tell me why people like it.

*please excuse the spelling, Kind of pissed off atm.*

Would you like a copy of DOTA? Valve's giving them away like pennies, so now's your chance to try. All you need is a Steam account and a somewhat modern computer. I say somewhat as my 5 year prebuilt old computer can play it just fine, but this shouldn't be an issue.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You're kidding, right? That tutorial was insanely helpful to me and my friends who started off. The only issue I had with the guide is that it doesn't really encourage playing around with heroes that much.

Nope. It's TMI, and presented in a way as to make the game seem as impenetrable and unforgiving as possible. 95% of that information is going to be useless overload for a new player who is trying to figure out last hitting and WTF a Tango even is.

That doesn't make it a bad guide. It is a completely comprehensive guide, and a must read for anyone who wants to play seriously. It's just not anything I would choose to INTRODUCE SOMEONE TO THE GAME with. In the same way I wouldn't tell a brand new SC2 player to watch a bunch of White Ra videos and "do that".

OT- DOTA is video game chess. It's a MOBA, which is a Massive Online Battle Arena, and is guaranteed to be difficult.

Well, more complex than actually difficult. Like chess, where it's simple to play, hard to master, DOTA has the same idea. The difference is that DOTA is a real time battle arena and has some RPG elements.

It's probably a bit too dense for an analogue to chess to really be fair. Chess is renowned for being a clean, simple, elegant game. There are all of 6 units, who move in very basic ways, on a small fixed surface. DOTA has 100 heroes with a multitude of abilities, further enhanced by a multitude of items, that must be coordinated with your allies against whatever madcap formula your opponents have assembled, all against a backdrop of creeps and towers and runes and a day/night cycle. It's a great game for people who like RPG systems, and team work, and "messy depth". Less so for anyone looking for something "simple".

I agree, though, that the barrier to entry for MOBA's is actually quite low, for all their fabled difficulty. If the matchmaker is worth a wet fart, you'll be matched against people of similar ineptitude, so you can very easily "learn on the job" without making too much of a hash of things. That's been my experience, anyway.

 

[blazearmoru]

I tried it and I didn't see the appeal. Partly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and partly because it wasn't really my style of game.

DotA from what I can grasp is a game catered toward a very small audience. Note that I'm talking about DotA and not LoL as LoL is designed for a greater audience. DotA is (from what I can see) a game about situations. You pick a character from a pool of 100+ characters, each with different capabilities and weaknesses. The item shop sells items with perks ranging from control, aggression, trickery, support, to damage. The map is vast and the geography unique. The mechanics allow players to influence and even manipulate the situation of the current match. It is essentially, 5v5 chinese chess.

From the shallow view, it is slow. Two teams running around getting stronger until the 5v5 fight. What's actually happening is two teams trying to disrupt the other team's strategy while attempting to pull off their own strategy. Options continue to close due to the meddling of the other team and as a result, both teams have to change their strategies to open up new options on the fly. It's a game of heavy thinking just like it's roots : Starcraft/Warcraft. The goal of the game is to destroy/defend ancients and all actions work toward that single goal. Anything goes.

 

[Innegativeion]

*snip*

Valve seems to be in the process of releasing League of Legends style tutorial levels for newbies now, which should definitely at least make the game seem less intimidating.

They've only just recently released part one, and it only covers the most basic of all basic DOTA mechanics, but it's a pretty quick and simple introduction for those who're completely lost.

They seem to be planning to add more of these tutorial quests to go more in-depth.